This is a continuation of the previous post...

Drats, the blogger interface did it again with me deleting my completed post due to the sketchy handling...

Well, I continue by talking about swimming... Or at like that lack of it! I've done only 2 swims thus far, and each only 20 laps in total, littered with breaks and stoppages! Somehow, I'll have to be ready to swim 38 laps continuous soon... Finding my floating point or getting the glide still elude me, but hopefully I'll get soemwhere there...

Finally, I talk about paddling... throwing Pohkhai and me straight into a 250m sprint was an utter disaster, as we had grown to unfamiliar with each other. Analysis and tryouts with Shaun revealed our differences in kicking and boat tilt, which we now compromise to accomodate each other. Now when I paddle, I focus on following his hip movements (which tie in with his kicking) as well as maintaining proper boat tilt (through pushing with legs). We'll really need to pick up from here in order to be competitive. As for individual paddling technique, I gained some insights from ad hoc coaches Andrea and Weiling, who were enjoying their hard-earned day off from Women's Champs by sitting at the pontoon. Basically, I was told that what I thought was my most over stretched paddling form was actually the proper form to exact a good catch. Looks like it back to basics for me... =S

Lastly, I'll talk about nutrition during long workouts. I've realised that it truly is essential to have a nutrition plan if your workout lasts for more than 3 hours. I basically bonked to day while attempting a brick by going for a run with Team after my morning ANZA ride. I DNFed in the end. It started as feelings of weakness, followed by a left calf cramp which left me walking for a while. And then even walking felt bad as I broke out in cold sweat... The session ended with me taking a bus (!) home... Yups, so it seems that 2 muesli bars during and a after the ride did not suffice, and so I shal begin my search for a cheap source of power gels....

Wah, it has been a long time since I last blogged! All thanks to blogger for failing on me... Apparently this problem only affects me at home, but not anywhere else...

Ok, so during this blackout period of 10 days what have i been doing? Well, basically I've been trying to live like a Full Time Athlete, but well you know, the lazy bug catches up with me every now and then and I find myself slacking away the evenings.... Yah, resting, that's what it's called. Hur hur.

Anyway, as boring as training can be, there are still some highlights. Hmm, I've started being less dependent on the bike by running to canoeing trainings but unfortunately I've been complacent and so I'm like perpetually 10 mins late (what a sin!). Sigh, hopefully I get fitter and run faster or something. Or maybe I should just wake up earlier (whoops). Running back home has been good too =) , all in all helping me keep a minimal mileage. For more running specific trips, I've only done one 10k run and a 2hr run. Not too good as compared to the marathon days when I clocked so much more... But hopefully I'll get there.

My first week of training for cycling was an utter disaster, with me failing to wake up ALL 3 days in a role! Eg. Supposed to wake at 5:15, look at clock and it's 5:45..... supposed to wake 4:45, look at clock it's 5:25.... Sigh.... So much for my plan to resume riding with ANZA... Well, for the better part I did 2 afternoon rides of the northen loop (Thomson-Mandai-Kranji-NeoTiew-LCK-ChuaChuKang-BukitTimah) but the power isn't the same as before... Think it's been like more than 1 year since I rode like that by myself...

Last Saturday I skipped training to further test my cycling abilities with a round island ride. I found that I start to lose power after 2:45 and that my muesli bars are super dry... I also found out I go through nearly 6 bottles of drink for the entire 165km. As compared to before (2 yrs ago!), my average speed improved from 29.8kmh to 31.9kmh but i credit that to better (but still lacking) nutrition and a much lighter bike.

Then this week I managed to slap on my aerobars (finally back from the shop) but not after 1 hour of struggling with a brake cable that's too short... I spent the last 2 days tesing them and it's been so so... Was destroyed on both Rodalink West (Tuesday) and ANZA (Wednesday) rides.. Can't seem to bring up the power while in the aero-tuck as the position seems to constrict my breathing. More tweaking to do.

More rants on cycling continued: It's wierd how I can whack and struggle to keep up with the bunch, and look around to see girls seemingly cruise by... I guess my threshold of pain has lowered considerably. It also doesn't help that I hate to draft sometimes. And yes, today I sort of witnessed 2 crashes with ANZA, the first occuring after drafting a truck and pulling over to the side too close to the kerb, and the next occuring cos the guy was too distracted looking back at the first crash... Luckily both chaps slid on their tights to emerge unscathed, and even luckier that the bunch managed to swerve around them in time.

I hope this post isn't too long for blogger to handle...